1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to lighting systems and, more particularly, to a lighting system that controls a plurality of lighting apparatuses according to the control content that is set by a controller.
2. Description of the Related Art
A lighting setting device, which arbitrarily sets the luminosity of a plurality of lighting apparatuses installed indoors and the illuminance at each position indoors according to the intended use to produce a scene based on lighting, has been known. In order to produce a scene like this, a dimming console is used, which includes a plurality of faders for setting an output level of a predetermined dimming control signal for each channel corresponding to each of dimmers connected to a plurality of lighting apparatuses, respectively (e.g. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2000-311791).
However in the case of the dimming console disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2000-311791, correspondence of each lighting apparatus and fader is hard to know, and operation is complicated. As a technique to solve this problem, a lighting setting device is available which uses a display device to detect the operation indication by the user, such as a liquid crystal touch panel, as a display unit for displaying a flashing state and luminosity setting state of each lighting apparatus, whereby allowing the control of the flashing and luminosity of each lighting apparatus (e.g. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-277972).
The lighting setting device according to Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-277972, however, is used for setting the luminosity of a plurality of lighting fixtures installed on an indoor ceiling, and is never meant to be used for living room illumination in general residences for example. Lighting apparatuses in a general residence are installed not only on the ceiling but also in various locations, including a wall and floor, and the shapes and colors of the illumination light of the lighting apparatuses also varies. The lighting setting device disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-277972 simply indicates a plurality of lighting fixtures installed on the indoor ceiling as a planar image, hence it is difficult for a general user to imagine a control state of each lighting apparatus in a target area where the lighting apparatuses are installed, and producing a desired scene is not so easy.